Each year at about this time, I tend to make comments about chasers in the summertime. The temperature outside, up here in Maine, is pushing over 90, which just seems miserable -- until I think about what it would be like to be below decks on a 110' wooden boat in this weather.
This month, a new photo to come across my desk, takes me in another direction: It's a shot of a chaser about to be fitted out as a Coast Guard cutter, and chase liquor smugglers during prohibition.
Let me just pour myself a glass of bourbon, and look through some records to see if I can figure out which chaser it was ...
--Todd Woofenden, editor
Chaser as cutter Saigon
Just posted is a scan of a newspaper file shot of a chaser post-war, about to be fitted out as the Coast Guard cutter Saigon. The date stamped on the back is May 9, 1923 -- which makes sense. See the photo page, here, for the newspaper article attached to the back.
Unfortunately, it doesn't identify which chaser it is, and so far, I can't find a reference. Does anyone have Saigon on a reference list?
Chasers at Malta
Added to the set photos taken at Malta are two shots of chasers, submitted by Richard Gibbons, whose grandfather served in the RNAS, working on aircraft manufacture.
One shows eleven chasers (at least) in dry dock at the same time, in several rows of three, and a couple at the near end. The chasers were brought into dry dock frequently, to seal seams, sheath the hull, and perform repairs. This photo was probably taken just after the war, as the chasers were readying for the return trip overseas.